Make: Asks is a weekly column where we ask you, our readers, for responses to maker-related questions. We hope the column sparks interesting conversation and is a way for us to get to know more about each other.

Back in school they taught us “My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas,” to remember the order of the planets from the sun (though now we have to remove Pluto of course).

This week’s question: What scientific or technical mnemonics have you retained, and do you use any on a regular basis?

In addition to being an online editor for MAKE Magazine, Michael Colombo works in fabrication, electronics, sound design, music production and performance (Yes. All that.) In the past he has also been a childrens’ educator and entertainer, and holds a Masters degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.

Man, I lost out with “Some Old Horse Came A Hoppin’ Through Our Alley.” Your mnemonic is better!

;^)

Joe

My Dad taught me how to remember the first thirty elements… It wasn’t a mnemonic per say, but just all the symbols sounded out and a few extra vowels thrown in to string it all together: “H-He, Li BBe’CNOFlNe, NaM(e)g AlSi PSClAr, K-Ca, SC(i)Ti V(ee)CrMn, Fe, CoNiCuZn”. I guess it might be better if I recorded and posted a sound bite, but hopefully you get the idea.

http://twitter.com/PatrikD Patrik D’haeseleer (@PatrikD)

Joe: Same here (although I came up with that one myself). I don’t get much use out of the 4th line, but knowing LiBeBCNOFNe NaMgAlSiPSClAr by heart comes in surprisingly useful sometimes.

Related: CHNOPS are the six elements essential for all life – nicely clustered on the periodic table (other than H). If you know their order on the periodic table, you can easily figure out molecular weight of any biochemical, figure out which gases are lighter (e.g. CH4 vs CO vs N2 vs O2 vs CO2), etc.

http://www.CateAnevski.com Cate Anevski

My new favorite is a mnemonic I learned from the book How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown to remember the order of the planets sans Pluto: “Mean very evil men just shortened up nature.”

ComputerJebus

Happy HEnry LIkes BEer, But Could Not Obtain Food.

Kieran

My GCSE Physics teacher taught me to remember the “Russian” name H. Helibebcnof, as a way of remembering the order of the first few elements of the periodic table; H He Li Be B C N O F. It worked, can’t get it out of my head now. xD

Urn

Keep Putting Condoms On For Great Sex = Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species. Also, highschool public service announcement.

http://www.facebook.com/PelicanFeathers Tommy Phillips

Reistor Code:
Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Project Goes Wrong

Trigonometric Ratios:
Oscar Had A Heap Of Apples (But you have to remember they go in pairs for sin/cos/tan)

Tcoyle

Bad booze rots our young guts, but vodka goes well. Get some now.

It has the added bonus of tacking the tolerance bands on the end.

Spencer Chapman

My high school electronics teacher taught us for the resistor color code something he said he learned in the navy, which may explain its crude nature. But it’s always stuck with me.

Bad Boys Ravage Our Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly.

http://somethingscrawlinginmyhair.com Tim Eisele

“How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics” – count letters in words for first 15 digits of Pi.

I had a Dutch version to remember them, but I forgot it… However, I do remember: “Some Say Marry Money But My Brother Says Big Breasts Matter Most” to remember whether they were somatosensory, motoric or both.

I don’t need much of a mnemonic for resistor codes, I just remembered
First Black, Brown,
Then ROYGBIV without the I for Indigo (so, ROYGBVvVvVvV! as we said in high school)
Then Gray, White.
The ends are not too hard for me to remember, especially since they go from dark to light.

from Heinlein’s excellent “Have Spacesuit Will Travel”. It has the added attraction of reminding me where the asteroid belt is.

Ashley

These are mnemonics I remember but I haven’t used them in years.
Never Eat Shredded Wheat (North East South West)
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge / FACE (Lines and spaces on a treble clef musical scale)
Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Venture Goes Wrong (Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Gray White, Resistor colour code)
Pussy Cat On Fence Got Shot (Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species)

andreas

All altruists gladly make gum in gallon tanks. Aldohexoses (Allose, altrose glucose and so forth), together with rules on how to flip their projections in order to remember their stereo chemistry..

Pete Bond

Nice question. OSi AlFe CaNaK Mg. Order of abundance of elements in the Earth crust !!! Rolls off the tongue once you get it. METhChemMEm from TRIZ. Mechanical, Electrical, Thermal, Chemical, Magnetic and Electomagnetic (waves-light, x-rays etc). The categories of natural forces we embody or use to create effects (functions) in engineered/human systems. Part of the TRIZ idea of directed technological evolution. See

tomn916

ELI the ICE man

Voltage (E) leads Current (I) in an Inductor (L).
Current leads Voltage in a Capactor (C).

I haven’t used it in so long that I can’t remember what I used it to calculate. I still remember it though.

jamesbx

My Dear Aunt Sally
For the order of arithmetic operations (multiplication, division, addition, subtraction). I sometimes still use this to reduce the parens in code.